If you own an Apple and are remotely interested in following the brand, Daring Fireball is a must read. It is a little bent toward the programmer set, but there is a lot to get out of the prolific John Gruber.

Case in point, this might be the best blog post title of 2007:

Yet Another in the Ongoing Series Wherein I Examine a Piece of Supposedly Serious Apple Analysis From a Major Media Outlet and Dissect Its Inaccuracies, Fabrications, and Exaggerations Point-by-Point, Despite the Fact That No Matter How Egregious the Inaccuracies / Fabrications / Exaggerations, Such Pieces Inevitably Lead to Accusations That I’m Some Sort of Knee-Jerk Shill Who Rails Against Anything ‘Anti-Apple’ Simply for the Sake of Defending Apple, and if I Love Apple So Much Why Don’t I Just Marry Them?

No, it is not a C++ GUI programming guide.

For Mac users out there, check out MacSanta. Twenty-one software companies are having a Christmas Sale. When you use the coupon code MACSANTA, you get 20% off the standard price. The offer is good until 12/25/06. I use FlySketch and VoodooPad. My early holiday gifts look like they will be Fission and PackRat.

NetNewsWire (the best RSS reader for the Mac) is also available for 30% the normal price. Use NGHoliday when you check out and get $10 off.

Rogue Amoeba is a creator of Mac Software and are among a handful who create really good stuff.  One of their more popular products right now is AirFoil, that lets you send any type of audio from your computer to any audio system via Airport Express.  It was initially released for the Mac, and the lure of a much bigger installed base led them to write a version for Windows,

They wrote an interesting post on Thursday about their experience selling to the Windows market.  There are disclaimers all over the post about their limited data and beta release, yet they still draw conclusions.

Here are a couple of my responses:

• There is a hive for Windows users.  200,000 downloads of Vista show that Windows is alive and well.
• The software depends on you have an Airport Express.  How many Windows users are running out the down to get an AE?  The hardware adoption is going to drive sales.  I think their slightly higher conversion rate for the Windows version is geeks with multiple computers want to be able to stream from wherever they have audio.

I think there are equally as good questions in the comments of the post.

My comments are a little bigger than the conversion rate questions from the post.  RA wrote a follow-up on Friday and asked for others to talk about their conversion rate.  Unsanity,  The Little App Factory, and  Gaucho Software all provided more numbers. 

Something around 5% seems to be what all these companies are seeing.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog is giving away a Ipod Nano. The only thing you have to do is post your 10 all-time favorite posts from TUAW. So, here we go:

1. What are you listening to? – In this post, they asked everyone to look at their iTunes and post what their 5 most played songs were. This was great because it was community based, easy to do, and it was guaranteed to have accurate results (Here were my five).
2. The New York Times on Mac Geniuses and the Halo Effect – This was a great summary post that highlighted some great facts about the Genius Bars. I would have missed this had you not highlighted it.
3. Freeware February: Notational Velocity – I was watching every day for what new tools you could bring into my life. NV is wonderful and a integral part of my workflow now.
4. More birthday tributes for Steve – PodBrix are way cool and you brought them into my world.
5. MacDevCenter on 20 Cool Tiger Features – I was quick to upgrade to Tiger and mostly enjoyed Spotlight. This post showed me some other things I could appreciate by going to 10.4.
6. Make NetNewsWire Sing – This is the second most important program on my computer after Mail. This was a great tip and helped with slowdowns I was getting.
7. T-shirt bears quote from Jobs’ Standford Speech – This was great for two reasons – the shirt is hilarious and you guys have a link to video of Jobs’ speech (I didn’t know I could watch it).
8. When was your Mac Born? – This was a cute post. For people who consider their Apple a part of their identity, it was a great way to become even more attached.
9. iTunes 5 shuffle got more random – I was always on the side that they must have some special programming built into the shuffle. I know it wasn’t true, but it sure seemed like it. I found it really interesting to see them add it as a feature (and I saw it on TUAW first).
10. How to Create a podcast with .Mac – I liked the possibility of no bandwidth charges with putting my files up on .Mac. But what is great about this post is it referred to a TUAW post the day before that I had missed. The topic was how Apple just put a cap on bandwidth. It pushed me to pursue other avenues.

To summarize, TUAW helps me see things that I don’t often have time to find myself.

I had a short lived Typepad blog called The Switch. It’s purpose was to talk about all the challenges associated with going from PC to Apple.

I am shutting down my Typepad account, because I do everything in Movable Type and I haven’t updated any of the Typepad blogs I had in about six months.

One of the posts that generated alot of dicussion was around the best bag for your Powerbook. I wanted to capture here for posterity.

P.S. I went with the Tom Bihn Empire Builder and Brain Cell. Worth every penny.

******

This might seem like a trivial question, but I am going to be lugging the Powerbook around a lot.

I am not looking for a portable office, but rather something that can protect the Powerbook and have room for needed wires, a couple of files, and a notebook.

I was looking through the eBags website. I spent a lot of time reading the comments, but there weren’t a lot specific to Powerbooks.

Remember, I have the 15″ Powerbook G4.

What bags do you like?

Comments

ok todd, here’s a list I culled for you from MacWorld, Dec. 2003 of some very cool bags:

http://www.goincase.com
http://www.kensington.com
http://www.macally.com – they have some nice ones at a good price.
http://www.willow-design.com
http://www.timbuk2.com – ultra-customizable, very cool
http://www.brenthaven.com
http://www.tombihn.com

Personally,I had a guy make me a custom sleeve, padded, with plastic inserts for rigidity, and surrounded in cordura. Closes with a big-ass piece of velcro. I throw it into a courier bag or back pack and it’s good to go. This way if I change bags I am not losing the protection – I have a 15″ powerbook, I think it cost me about $40cdn to have made. Hope this helps.

cheers – d.

Posted by: David | March 4, 2004 10:59 AM

All good choices

http://www.jrhillandcompany.com/ca06.asp
http://www.casauri.com/
http://www.acmemade.com/
http://www.crumplernyc.com/public/home.ehtml

Not necessarily for Mac but cool fashion: http://www.clivebags.com/

You will definitely want a wrap or pad that goes around the PB – the screens cost about 90% of cost of original to replace – no way to repair if it cracks.

Posted by: jbelkin | March 4, 2004 11:41 AM

http://www.tombihn.com would be my choice.

Posted by: Mike Strock | March 4, 2004 12:14 PM

Take a look at Waterfield Designs:

http://www.sfbags.com/

I’ve got one of his cargo bags and it’s really nice, although it’s probably larger than what you’re looking for.

Posted by: Mark | March 4, 2004 02:35 PM

My two favorites are the Laptrap and the Moya by Incase–their site is being reworked, so you may have to use a search engine to look it over. Or try and look at the selection there.

Posted by: Bruce E. Durocher II | March 4, 2004 04:33 PM

For my $$$ Brenthaven.

Posted by: Jeffsters | March 4, 2004 06:57 PM

Zero Halliburton. There’s nothing better. I’ve had the same attache sized Zero for about 6 years now from my Wallstreet to Pismo to TiBook and it’s taken an incredible beating whithout transferring so much as a scratch to the PB within. They can be a bit on the pricey side, but they’re well worth it.

http://www.zerohallidburton.com

The Z and DZ lines seem to be the current computer offerings.

Posted by: deraven | March 4, 2004 06:59 PM

I use a sleeve (in my case, the extremely silly and stylish Crumpler School Hymn in silver leather) around the Powerbook, after which I toss it into a canvas briefcase that looks nothing like a laptop bag (mine is a Lands End square rigger). There’s plenty of room for all my other stuff as well and cables. I really do recommend choosing a bag that people don’t expect to have a laptop in it, but you must protect the Powerbook as well.

Posted by: Alison Scott | March 5, 2004 07:42 AM

Tom Bihn.
I’ve been through several others.
The Tom Bihn bags have a rigid padded shell that cradles the powerbook inside the bag. It appears to offer much more protection that padding alone. Construction is good, cost not out of line.

Posted by: Ian Lind | March 5, 2004 08:09 AM

Big vote for the incase bags. They’re sold at the Apple stores and online at http://www.goincase.com. They use this incredible fabric I’ve never seen anywhere else, and are sleeker than any other designs. I’ve been using one for my iBook for nearly three years, and it still looks and feels great. Good luck!

Posted by: Adam Bezark | March 5, 2004 08:41 AM

Try booq for good designs in the backpack/sling arena. Their sleeve cases are also quite good.

Waterfield makes good sleevecases; I’m not a fan of their designs.

If you want fashion, check out Jack Spade.

If you want pure functionality, go with Timbuk2 and their sleeves. Totally customizable.

For coolness, I’d check out Freitag:
freitag.ch

The others seem hokey, and have no style.

-art director-with-bag-fetish

Posted by: reason | March 5, 2004 06:05 PM

just got a bag at willow…the best bag ever..shame they’re closing up shop…clearance prices are very good….

this is highly recommended

Posted by: dixon | March 5, 2004 07:21 PM

I use an InCase sleeve inside a California Pak bag. Total cost was less than $50 (bought the InCase used and CalPak new).

Posted by: e. | March 6, 2004 06:44 AM

I’ve been very pleased with the STM sport laptop backback. Its rugged but attractive, and has protected my 15″ PB through a few hard knocks. The Australian manufacturer is user-friendly and replaced for free a plastic buckle that was cracked by a slammed car door.

See picture: http://www.etravelergear.com/sporlapbac.html

Posted by: Paul Fox | March 7, 2004 07:45 AM

Trager have some great bags. Their Seattle Messenger started it all. They have a hard sleeve Transpod which fits a 15″ Powerbook and slips inside a satchell. They are well made and will go the distance.

Posted by: Mark Daley | May 10, 2004 01:51 AM

Check out http://www.bagreview.com

They have many, many reviews of laptop bags from more cos. than you can imagine. They also sell some of their samples.

Posted by: Chris Edwards | May 12, 2004 02:53 PM

Well, I like this one.
http://www.humanbeans.net/powerpizza/index.html

Posted by: anonymous | June 24, 2004 08:43 AM

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